


Million Reasons Why

by theoraclespecialist



Category: Eyewitness (US TV)
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fluff, Future Fic, Gay, M/M, Post-Finale, Romance, boys as adults, but fresh as ever, possible marriage proposal, six years into the future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 19:07:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8908480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoraclespecialist/pseuds/theoraclespecialist
Summary: A short multi-chapter fic about a phase in Philkas' relationship in which they contemplate about their future and where they're at





	1. Chapter 1

“You sure you can’t pop in for a few minutes?”

Philip shook his head regrettably. “Nope. Gabe’s gonna fume if I don’t show up at the dealership,”

Lukas sighed. “Why can’t Helen do the negotiating?”

“She is wrapped up in this case up north. Some kind of a shootout,” 

“Jesus,” Lukas whispered, the memories of their incident starkly jabbing his senses. “Alright, I guess I’ll see you in a few hours,” He opened the door of the car before turning back for a kiss.

“Sure thing,” Philip pecked him on the lips and jumped the engine. “Love you,”

“Love you,”

Lukas plodded towards his childhood home as Philip’s car zipped down the dirt road. Every time they came back to Tivoli, a pile of chores always ended up in their lap. Not that they minded attending to those chores but they still continued to hope that their time back home would be one of relaxation and family. 

It had been approximately six years since Helen shot their tormentor by the lake and relieved the boys of their trauma. Of course, scraps of the night at the cabin broke through their minds every now and then but at least it was something they could share together and with others.

It really wasn’t much of a surprise to their parents when they told them that they were planning to move to the city after graduation. Despite Anne having saved some money for Philip, he had gotten himself a scholarship at NYU. Lukas had managed to convince his sponsors to let him train and compete in the city but after six months of intensive motorcross, he had come to the realization that he did not want to pursue this professionally. It had always been about an adventure, something he could do to release his frustration, an escape from his reality but once he figured that going professional rid him of the thrills he obtained from riding, he decided it was best that he abandon his plans yet maintain the thrills by taking out the motorcycle every now and then with Philip. He did not have anything to escape from anymore. 

Following a raging, insane first year at the dorm, the two decided to move in together at Philip’s old house, the one he grew up in. It was a shabby place but Philip wanted to honour his mother by basing the rest of his life on the property. That summer, Bo, leading an inexperienced team of Philip, Lukas, Gabe and a few friends of the couple from college, fixed up the house and made a few changes to the decor. 

As soon as Lukas entered the house, he spotted his dad at the kitchen, marinating meat on the counter. Bo’s eyes lit up as he looked up at his son and strode forward for an enveloping embrace. “Waited for you all morning, you know that?”

“Sorry, the traffic at the highway was...”

“I know, I know...farm guy, what am I supposed to know about traffic?” He set the meat aside, washed his hands and poured two cups of coffee. “Where is Philip?”

“He had to run some errands with Gabe. Apparently, he’s getting a new car or something,”

“Of course, that truck was falling apart like a house of cards,”

Lukas kicked his shoes off and turned on the TV, letting the comfort of its background noise fill the room. Bo joined him with coffee and some cookies and sat next to him on the couch. There were no words for how wonderful it felt to have developed this bond with Bo. All his life, Lukas had been petrified of the kind of reaction Bo would have to his sexual orientation. But once they got around to talking about it, Lukas couldn’t be more grateful to have a father like Bo, someone who actually apologized to his son following the coming-out. He regretted not being there for Lukas so much so that his son had chosen not to confide in him with what had been troubling him. It broke Lukas’s heart to see his dad be so broken over what he believed was his failure in parenting but really, Lukas was just relieved that his father still loved him. 

And after that, their relationship had taken a swift turn for the better. Bo chucked out the hard liquor, scanned over a few pamphlets for PFLAG, much to Lukas’s annoyance, and attempted to build a proper relationship with his son. They’d go hunting, watch films and went fishing with Gabe and Philip every once in a while. He would even comfort his son every time Lukas ran back home following a fight with Philip. 

“So I have some news for you,” 

Lukas raised his eyebrows in apprehension. Bo generally did not sound so solemn so Lukas could only hope it was not something serious. 

“Are you sick?”

Bo wrinkled his forehead. “Sick? No, no, God no. I’m completely alright,” he clarified, blinking profusely. “In fact, um, I’ve met someone wonderful,”

Lukas grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to tell you, son...” Bo looked down, embarrassed. “She works in the local bank and we’ve been seeing each other for a month now,”

“Dad, that’s great!”

“Ya think?”

“Absolutely,”

Obviously, there was no way for Lukas to confirm if the woman was legitimately into his dad or that she was not bringing a trove of vices with her but that did not take away from the significance of the moment. Lukas had always been worried about his dad, seeing as how he crumbled the day of his departure. At least Helen and Gabe had each other but Bo...all he had was Lukas. And occasionally Lukas felt guilty for betraying his father in some way, by leaving him alone in the farm while he downed shots and danced away in the city. 

“What changed your mind, though?” asked Lukas, after Bo regaled with the story of how he met and courted his girlfriend. 

“Can’t really tell, son,” Bo responded. “Perhaps I didn’t want to be lonely anymore. Or that I thought about you and how you conquered a world of fear to be yourself. Maybe I could cross over a few hurdles of my own,”

“I am such a hero, aren’t I?” Lukas cocked his head boastfully. 

“Yeah, yeah, come off your damn horse. Figured I wasn’t going to get grandkids from you and Philip anytime soon; it was time to make our lives a bit fuller,”  
Lukas smiled but deep inside, something had been triggered by his dad’s statement. However, for the moment, he lunged into his dad for a hug and they continued talking and watching TV. 

Later that night, Philip, Gabe and Helen joined them for dinner. Philip was just as pleased to learn that Bo had begun dating again while Gabe and Helen revealed that they had already known and attested to the woman’s existence and character. Afterwards, Philip went back to Gabe’s while Lukas stayed at his dad’s. That was their arrangement that both their parents had made them to agree to: whenever they were back in Tivoli, they would stay at their parents’ house. It was the least they could do, considering that they lived together in the city. 

However, that did not mean that Lukas was not allowed to send Philip a dick pic at one in the morning. 

Phillip replied back, ‘Delicious,’  
‘LOL you better not be cuddling with your family at the couch right now’ texted Lukas.  
‘Only you get cuddling privileges’ assured Philip.  
‘Btw I was thinking that we should steal a few pillows from home. That pink pillow is tearing off’ Lukas typed into the phone.  
‘Oh good idea. Not like Gabe cares’ replied Philip.  
‘Helen for sure would care’  
‘Right, xD’ 

Eventually, Philip said that he was feeling sleepy so they bid goodbye and set aside their phones. But Lukas was nowhere close to feeling sleepy. Not that he was tired but because his mind was occupied with one singular idea that his dad had introduced in an earlier conversation. 

Figured I wasn’t going to get grandkids from you and Philip anytime soon, he had said. 

Bo was right; of course, Lukas and Philip could not physically birth children. But it seemed to Lukas that Bo was, or had been, harbouring some kind of a longing for grand-children. It was not outside the realms of possibility for parents to want grand-children but those possibilities dwindled on the heels of them being...gay. 

He had previously thought about his but had never bothered to talk it over with Philip. Philip would laugh or just shake his head in disbelief: they were twenty three years old; they did not have enough experience or ambition to be talking about settling down. Lukas thinks back to the day at the motel where they had given their virginities to each other. At the time, their immediate response may have been bound in fear but Lukas remembered envisioning the future with Philip. Not only coming out to the school and his friends but actually living a life with Philip in the future, where they would go travelling, cook together, fall asleep together and such. 

He loved Philip with the power of a million stars. He could not be prouder of how much they had been through and how much they still had to achieve. Was it time? Was it time to take an official step into achieving that future together?


	2. Chapter 2

The parched sunlight perforated his vision. Save for the birds chirping at a distance, the only sound was of two boys grunting and moaning by the still water. Philip bounced against Lukas, the sweat rubbing against his skin. Lukas was forced to close his eyes, because of the overwhelming brightness as well as the space he required to completely feel the sensations Philip was driving into him. 

“God, I’m close,” Lukas panted, tightening his grip on his penis that both Philip and he had been stroking from the beginning. “Phil, Phil...oh my God...”

“Fuck,” Philip bit his lip as he lowered his body onto Lukas’s. No space lied between them as Philip drilled his head into the blonde’s shoulder. Lukas placed his palm on the back of Philip’s head in an attempt to steady him, as he so often got restless nearing their climax. The groans intensified, the thrusts accelerated and Lukas could feel the last of control slipping out of his fingers. 

Phillip expressed his orgasm with a low, grainy grunt and Lukas himself came onto his stomach, his cum dribbling over Philip’s body. Philip looked at their shared stickiness and chuckled. He exited out of Lukas and rolled over next to him. A few minutes of their rushed breathing and euphoric release filled the cold air. 

“We wouldn’t be doing this in the city, would we?” said Philip, facing up at the speckles grey sky above. 

“Having sex in public wouldn’t be the freakiest thing,”

“Right,” Philip shifted to rest his lips on Lukas’s upper arm. “Only the people would be quick to throw cans at our asses,”

They relished the calm of the town, this lake, the plot of land to which Lukas brought Philip in the hopes of going swimming years ago. The plan did not pan out but Lukas did get Philip to take proper swimming lessons in college. If he had been brave enough to jump into the water to bring his boyfriend to safety, then he was certainly brave enough to float with a needle in the kiddie pool. One of their favourite things to do in Tivoli was to revisit their old haunts and make love amidst the memories they shared with the place. Lukas even mustered the courage to drive to the cabin and complete what they had begun six years ago. 

As they were peering at the billowing grey clouds above, Philip’s phone vibrated. Philip sat up and squinted at his flashing phone. “Shit, it’s Marian. I gotta take this,” 

Lukas laughed at how casually Philip, naked from head to toe, leaped up from the blanket and jogged to their car to take the call. Lukas continued staring up at the sky as Philip’s voice buzzed in the background. Once the call carried over five minutes, Lukas sat up and dressed himself. It appeared that their retreat into the lake was coming to an end, especially as the clouds began accumulating over their heads and sullying the promise of the bright day. Oh, good old Tivoli. 

Lukas joined his boyfriend at the car hood with his set of clothes but Philip wouldn’t budge from his position as he shouted into the phone. “No, you can’t possibly place the photo before the third article. The feature cannot have a fucking a sanitizer advert in between, are you fucking nuts?”

Lukas shook his head and laughed at Philip’s petty frustration. 

“You know what, just leave it. Leave it; I’ll take care of it. I’ll go home and...I’ll take care of it,” Philip snapped. He hung up the phone and sighed. 

Lukas trod towards him and nuzzled him on his neck. 

“Fucking interns,” Philip hissed in annoyance. 

“You were one of them, like, a year ago,”

“Two years ago,” corrected Philip. “And I had half a wit about photography,”

He had more than half of a wit about photography. At first, Lukas thought he was the only one who regarded Philip’s work with so much admiration, amazement and love but as he discovered over the years, Philip was really gifted in what he did. Not only did he ace every single photography or visual media class, he had earned the esteem and honour of his professors, the professional photographers as well as the spectators that followed him in his exhibitions over the years. The honours were so astounding that Philip managed to find himself a job a day before their graduation and due to his hard work and creativity, he was now heading his own department in the Oracle magazine. 

Philip dressed himself and the two shuffled into the car. Before Lukas drummed up the engine, he looked at Philip hesitantly. “Babe?”

“Yeah,” said Philip absent-mindedly, his head lowered as he was tying his shoes. 

“I was thinking...” Lukas bit his lip. “I know this is very...out of the blue and I’m probably setting us up for danger but I’ve been thinking about this. We have our checkups coming up next month, so after that...do you want to consider going bareback?”

The surprise that had powered over Philip’s conveyance was evident. Philip giggled and stared at Lukas in disbelief and wonder. “Are you...”

“I mean...” Lukas said. “I love you and I hope you love me and...”

“Of course I do,” replied Philip, cutting his boyfriend off. 

“You’re the only person I want to be with and I know I don’t want to fool around with anyone else for the remainder of my life, so why not?”

“It’s a big fucking deal, isn’t it?” said Philip, looking down at his knees. 

“I don’t know. In a way, it is because I’m putting all my chips into us but at the same time, it won’t be any different from what we’re doing now anyways,”

“Well, I’ll be cumming straight in your ass, won’t I?”

Lukas laughed at this instance of crudeness. “What do you think?”

“I think...” He dragged out his last word in contemplation. “I’d do anything to make you mine for the rest of our lives,”

Lukas smiled and leaned forward for a deep, celebratory kiss with his boyfriend. “I’m already yours, though,”

=====================================================

Their last night in Tivoli, Lukas stayed up till three in the morning, doing research on same-sex adoption in the States and in particularly, New York City. It was easy to drown in the ocean of miracles and heartbreaks that was the world of gay adoption. After having consumed his share of videos and stories, Lukas wiped his tears away and shut the computer off. Funnily enough, his dad knocked on his door. “You doing okay there?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lukas croaked, rubbing his fist against his eyes. 

“What’s got you all teared up?” asked Bo, lumbering into his son’s bedroom. He took a seat at the edge of the bed and looked at his son with worried eyes. 

“No, I was just...watching military reunion videos,” he lied, but seeing as how this was their last night in the town and his father sitting comfortable at his bed, he thought a bit of first-hand guidance couldn’t hurt. “Dad, how’d you propose to Mom?”

“Son, that’s...almost twenty-five years ago,” he grinned. “I remember that her parents were moving down south and she wanted to go with them. Figured the pay in diners in South Caroline were better. So I took her out on a boat ride her last night in town. I had been carrying a ring in my pocket since the day I met your mother in the diner, and when we got off the boat and got popcorn from the corner store...”

“Don’t tell you snuck the ring into the popcorn!” Lukas interrupted. 

“No, no...we sat by the benches in the park and we were just talking sweet nothings. Just as she said it was getting too late and she had to leave to pack, I told her that it is never too late. I brought out the ring and told her that if she married me, then none of us would ever have to be late. Because we were where we had to be and we wouldn’t want to leave,”

“Really?”

“Yeah. This caught her in a second. We wed in the town hall some two weeks later,”

“That soon?”

“Would’ve been sooner if your Aunty Beth had gotten the dress sewn in time,” 

Lukas chuckled. This was yet another reason out of a million that he wanted his mother to be alive this very moment, just so she could fashion a contrast to Bo’s account of their proposal. The biggest regret of Lukas’s life is that his decisions following the events at the cabin somehow led to Kane murdering Anne, Philip’s mom. He already knew the pain that accompanied the death of a parent but he wouldn’t have wished in a million years for it to befall Philip in the way it did. There is something different about losing a parent to terminal illness and losing to them to cold-blooded murder. He was only glad that Philip himself wasn’t there to witness it, as he had already absorbed some of the most wretched, traumatic visuals that a teenager could take. 

Even though Philip was incredibly lucky to have Gabe and Helen carry him through the rest of his teenage years and into adulthood, Lukas wished that Philip didn’t have to go through any of that. Moreover, he wished that his own mother was still alive so she could have comforted Philip. She would have loved him more than she loved Lukas, as she was a prudent judge of character and would have known immediately that Philip was hurting, that he was helpless and broken. Lukas could only hope to emulate what he thought his mother would do with someone like Philip. 

“Son, if you want to propose to Philip, let me know so I can dig out your mother’s ring,”

“Dad?” Lukas said, his eyes widened in surprise. “What...”

“You don’t have to hide anything from me,” Bo said promptly. “If you can’t talk these things over with your old man, then...what’s my reason of existence really?”

“I don’t know, Dad...” Lukas said tiredly, slamming his back against the bed. “It’s not the nineties anymore, and we’re two guys...it’s hard to figure how we do this,”’

“Well, if you love him and want to be with him for the rest of his life...then what’s hard to figure out?”

Lukas sighed in exhaustion. “How to make him as happy as he makes me...” he answered. 

“Oh well, we already had that conversation years ago. I ain’t getting into your bedroom stuff so late in...”

“Dad!” Lukas laughed as he chucked a flurry of pillows at his dad, driving him out of the room. Lukas blushed and hid his face into the covers. It was astonishing how years later the thought of Philip still managed to summon a line of shingles down Lukas’s arms and send him into space of madness and love.


End file.
